Good way to know is to just open the Wikipedia page and then change the language (I do that very often).
Ah. Thanks for that.
I wonder if intolerance and racism come from a lack of imagination. It is very hard for a lot of people to just put themselves in someone else's shoes, and try to imagine how others live and what they must have been through during their lifetime. I wish people knew that there is no need to try to make others feel ashamed for not speaking English as well as they speak their mother tongues. When someone settles in a new country and has trouble integrating in the society they arrived in, the native inhabitants often blame the new comer for not trying hard enough... But the older you are, the harder it is to learn a new language, or just to improve yourself with that language, and if you can't communicate it just makes everything harder...
I found your mother's story very inspiring, and it made me happy to read about such a strong woman's achievement (if I may say so).
Yes, it is hard enough trying to imagine the situation from an outlook most unlike our own, as it is uncomfortable, especially as it requires much thought and reflection. I think what makes the exercise even harder is that racism, intolerance, and all forms of fallacies, hatreds, impatiences, etc., can easily be 'segmented' even in the most formidable minds.
For instance, you can be patient, good, considerate, and thoughtful toward certain people, then turn around and be impatient, bad, inconsiderate, and thoughtless to someone else, depending on whether you believe they are worth the time. In another way, someone can be a great thinker when it comes to physics, but when it comes to social policy she may seem the most callous person on earth.
And when it comes to language, it is especially hard to sympathize with people of other languages when that person has not given much thought to language. I think herein lies the true importance of having people become versed in another language: it is not merely that you can talk to people who speak that language, but that your perspective changes. In other words, learning another language affects the way you perceive issues because it is not only a communication tool but a machine for thinking, and that machine carries with it cultural baggage.
A lot of examples come to mind, one of which is Amy Tan's essay 'Mother Tongue,' which details how English encourages the communicator to get to the point, whereas Mandarin encourages a communicator to take her time. And when citing Tamil and English speaker Hari Shanker in my forum topic, '
Bilingualism, ideas, and the urge to write,' there was reiteration on the point that different languages affect how issues are viewed, and that those differences are not necessarily all 'better' but more complimentary. Especially when Shanker brings up the point about how 'Some languages are inherently superior in certain areas of human knowledge,' I am brought to mind of linguists Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine's
Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages, especially the part where it mentions (on page 70, hardcover edition)
A cover story for Time magazine entitled 'Lost Tribes, Lost Knowledge' in 1991 claimed that when native cultures disappear, so does a trove of scientific and medical wisdom. Despite the convincing case made for the loss of knowledge entailed by the loss of traditional cultures all over the world, the role of human languages as the main agents of cultural transmission was barely acknowledge.
If even the death of the languages of 'small' communities engenders a great loss for the sum total of human knowledge, then how about the languages of 'great' civilizations? If the baggage languages carry include a lot of 'first order' and 'second order' knowledge (i.e., practical knowledge, such as that mentioned in the quotation above, but also how such knowledge is interpreted, which carries additional value), then certainly there is value outside of a single language.
And so when an English speaker considers my mom inferior because she is 'only' a great Ilonggo speaker, perhaps he needs to rethink that way of assessing a person as possibly naive.
Glad my mom's story was inspiring, and thank you so much for the commentary.
And sorry for my rushed reply. I feel like the above deserves a lot of editing, considering the seriousness and breadth of the topic.
Didn't get the chance to write a lot this summer, but I did work a lot on my project (a scenario I have been working on for over two years). We had to take the car a lot this summer when we visited Scotland so I had plenty of time to dream about it. And if inspiration came out of nowhere, I always had something to write on with me.
Ooh, sounded like a good time. I would like to visit Scotland one day. And relatedly, my time on the plane on route to the Philippines tended to be occupied by book reading and poetry writing, heh. Indeed, a lot of what I said above was from what I recalled reading on my most recent plane ride.
Getting published is quite hard, I imagine. And a 'size limitation' must be very frustrating. Maybe it's for the best that you added back the scenes, and hopefully one day you'll find a good editor. Would be nice to read your novel, the title is very nice (I have been having a lot of trouble finding one for my own project, and just gave it a temporary title) and mysterious.
That would be quite an achievement, getting a novel done. I hope to do that one day. I find writing short stories quite rewarding, if more daunting, than poems. And I wish you well with your work, too. Maybe one day I will buy a novel that catches my eye from Amazon without realizing it is yours, assuming you do not already have a novel there.
Ever thought about posting on a 'fiction site' (not sure what they're called)? Although I personally don't hang out on this kind of websites.
Thought about it. I have registered to a few literature forums, but never stayed active on any. I was thinking of rejoining the writing club at school, but the recent requirement to read ten short stories and take notes made my lazy self say, 'nah.'
Thank you for the reply, as always!
I would love for you to have heard of The Fray. A very talented band if you ask me. The Fray is a band that has lot's of meaning in their song's, unlike all those sexist rapper's who only care about sex.
(I said sex to much and now I feel like a pervert...)
The Fray did not ring a bell until you mentioned them here and I looked them up on Google. When playing 'You Found Me' on YouTube, I immediately recognized the sound. Yeah, I like that song, and now that you reminded me of the band I will check out their other songs.
As for rappers, the ones you refer to seem not so much about sex as a definition of power that relates to their idea of machismo, which talks a lot about getting the girls, the cars, the money, etc., but never speaks of civic responsibility or responsibility to the community, or even taking responsibility for yourself. In regards to the latter sense of power, or empowering yourself and your community, there are plenty of rappers or hip-hop artists who speak on that, and they are the variety I listen to. Examples: Common, Talib Kweli, 2Pac, Immortal Technique, Mos Def, KRS-One.
Of course, rappers that avoid the misogyny and other forms of hatred do not have to be well-known as fixating on social issues, and they do not need to avoid love and sex entirely (after all, there is a way to talk about it without being hateful toward either gender or unrealistic about love relationships).
Thanks for the question!
